Neal Huntington created a nice 3-4 year window for Pirates

Neal Huntington created a nice 3-4 year window for Pirates

Much has been made about Neal Huntington’s trade deadline acquisitions of Chris Archer and Keone Kela in the fact that it not only gives the Pittsburgh Pirates a chance to compete the rest of this season, but the next couple as well.

That’s the biggest key as the Pirates window for success is now wide open for the next three years and likely longer.

It wasn’t just the deadline deals for Huntington, but the ones he made in the offseason as well.

The entire core of the team is now locked up for an extended period and that’s long been a goal of Huntington.

Huntington can also deal from a strength if he wants to acquire a veteran outfielder for a couple of years.

Behind the dish, Francisco Cervelli will expire after next season and as much as he is a fan favorite, it may be a good time for Huntington to look to move him in the offseason as Elias Diaz is this team’s catcher going forward. Diaz is under team control through 2022.

The corner guys in Josh Bell and Colin Moran are both under team control through 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The only real question mark for the Pirates comes up the middle where Jordy Mercer becomes a free agent at seasons end and Josh Harrison will almost certainly be bought out.

It’s almost not fair to ask a pair of rookies to jump in and be productive right off the bat, but that may have to be the case, although I can see Huntington addressing the middle infield in the offseason.

What Huntington did with his offseason trades and his deadline deals was create a very nice 3-4 year window where this Pirates team can be very competitive.